The Jungle Book was shot entirely in a warehouse

This article was first published in the May 2016 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

This is the first time I've had the opportunity to use this for something other than blowing things up," enthuses Jon Favreau. The 49-year-old director is getting animated about The Jungle Book. His adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling novel (and classic 1967 Disney musical) has been described as live action, but in reality its lush Indian landscapes - overgrown rainforest, Sun-roasted plains - were entirely created on a small studio lot in downtown Los Angeles.

Only Mowgli, the character played by young actor Neel Sethi, is real. The rest of the characters, from Baloo (Bill Murray) to Raksha (Lupita Nyong'o) and King Louie (Christopher Walken), were created with CGI.

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The film's stunning visuals were inspired by the groundbreaking methods used on Gravity and Avatar. "They used very different techniques, and we used both," says Favreau. "[Avatar director] James Cameron came to visit, and he knew half the people on our set." They also took inspiration from Disney's own history: the film was storyboarded in pencil then refined by a story department, as on an animated film.

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On the set, scenes for The Jungle Book were first filmed using motion capture. "We motion-captured the entire movie before we filmed anything and we cut the whole film together," says Favreau. Using that footage, the effects team then built the film's sets virtually, a process known as previsualisation (previz). "Everything was mapped against the virtual sets. We designed the sets like you would for a video game."

Walt Disney Pictures

The film's production designers then recreated small sections of the set as required for each of Sethi's live-action shots using blue screens and props, while puppeteers or actors stood in for the animals. Even the lighting was meticulously planned, with LED panels programmed to create the particular shadows for passing elephants or buffalo. Using a rig called SimulCam, also developed on Avatar, Favreau's crew could then combine the live-action footage - shot in native 3D using a Cameron-Pace rig - with the previz set and motion-capture in real time. "You'd see the kid with a guy in a blue suit, or a puppeteer, then with Simulcam you'd see the bear walking next to him," says Favreau. "We had the editing system on-set, and we would cut what we just shot into the movie, so that at any given time you could watch the whole thing." Finally, the finished footage would then go into post-production for the bulk of the visual-effects work - animating every tiny hair (modelled on those of real animals) and shadow by hand - and editing. The result is a jungle that looks and feels almost intimidatingly real.

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But going to such lengths, Favreau says, isn't just for spectacle. (Or rivalry - Andy Serkis is directing Jungle Book: Origins, a competing motion-capture adaptation for Warner Bros, due in 2017.) "It's not simply about pushing the technology further than it's ever gone before, but to make you see things and feel things. And to make it something you're not going to wait to see until it's on download."

Rather than being seen as a Hollywood throwback, Favreau hopes The Jungle Book can mark a new trend. "We can use this to open up another chapter in film-making, where you can make stories [with effects] that aren't just action stories. "That's the challenge," he says. "Can you use technology to make people feel things?"

The Jungle Book is out on April 15

This article was first published in the May 2016 issue of WIRED magazine